Loan Repayment
>>
Managing Loan Debt
On July 1, 2009 the governments new Income-Based
Repayment program begins. Find out
more here with a little video explaining your
options.
Student loans are a serious obligation. Failure
to repay can result in damage to your credit rating
and difficulty in securing other credit such as car
loans or mortgages. If you are in
default you are ineligible for any
additional federal financial aid.
Each Stafford borrower is entitled to one 6 month
grace period, which begins the day you graduate,
withdraw, or drop to less than half-time status. No
interest is charged and no payments are due until
after the end of your grace period.
You are responsible for notifying your lenders
when you graduate, leave school, or move. Deferments
are available for a variety of reasons, such as
return to school, active duty in the U.S. Armed
Forces, unemployment, or disability. Loan
forgiveness for some types of teaching are also
offered. Your loan promissory note has additional
information regarding repayment rights and
responsibilities.
A
loan calculator is available to help you
estimate what your monthly payments might look like,
and
loan repayment options are also explained on
this site.
You may visit American Student Assistance (ASA)
for information about federal loan deferment and forbearance
options for federal loans borrowed via a bank or
other lending institution. Their deferment request forms are found
here. You may reach ASA
directly, at (800) 999-9080. For a Direct Loan
(DL) deferment form (DL = loan borrowed directly
from the government) (Subsidized/Unsubsidized/PLUS)
you may go
here, or call the Direct Loan Servicing Center
at: 1-800-848-0979. Students who have both types of
loans will need to complete a deferment form for
each. For more specific
information about
Cancellation
and
Deferment
benefits for federal loans you may go directly to
the linked government web site pages.
For information about the status of your
particular federal student loans (amounts borrowed,
etc.) you may go to the
National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS)
website, which is the Department of Education's
central database for student aid. To access your
information on this site you will need your FAFSA
PIN.
For Perkins and Tufts Loan repayment information you can call
University Accounting Services at (800)
999-6227.
Many lenders have loan repayment calculators on
their web sites and you may want to make use of them
to aid you in your repayment considerations. For your reference we offer a link to this
very good
debt management
site which provides a lot of resources for budgeting,
loan repayment, etc.
You can also find many types of loan calculators and checklists to help
guide you through repayment.
If you would like to contact the Direct Loan
customer service center, complete contact
information is
here.
Managing Your Educational Loan
Debt
We are making available a power point presentation that was
offered in our department in February by American
Student Assistance, in case you missed it. Entitled
5
Weeks,
5 Months, 5 Years: A Guide to Your Next Steps,
it has links to many helpful sites, and it is loaded
with tips on money management, loan repayment, etc.
The objectives of the presentation are as follows.
•
Understand the money management tools that are
available to you.
•
Ease your worries about the debt burden you have
assumed while in school with money saving tips
•
Learn how to achieve financial wellness by taking
action within the next 5 weeks, 5 months and 5
years!
Please
contact your aid counselor if you would like us to
offer this workshop, or more like it, again!
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